It’s the last day of term here in Westminster, with MPs set to head off for Easter recess this afternoon. The House will return on 22 April with campaigning ahead of the local elections in full swing.
Having chaired cabinet this morning, Keir Starmer is due for the usual pre-recess Q&A at the liaison committee — the supergroup of senior parliamentarians who take turns grilling the prime minister on their specialist subject. Each MP, themselves a chair of a select committee, will stick to three broad themes: growth, international affairs and defence, and welfare reforms and health.
This is Starmer’s second time taking part in the end-of-term ritual. His first liaison committee showing, towards the end of last year, saw him mostly fail to commit news. No 10 will be hoping for a similarly successful session today.
There is only one Conservative MP down to question the prime minister (Geoffrey Clifton-Brown, chair of the public accounts committee), and two Liberal Democrats (Layla Moran, health; and Jamie Stone, petitions). Reform UK and the Greens’ slight profiles mean they are mostly shut out of parliament’s committee rooms.
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Expect Starmer to receive the hardest time from Sarah Champion, who chairs the international development select committee. She is a staunch opponent of the government’s foreign aid cut, and earlier this year accused the prime minister of personally setting a “dangerous course” for the UK.
Dame Meg Hillier, chair of the liaison committee, will open the session with some general questions. As the lead MP on the Treasury select committee, it would seem reasonable to expect a line of inquiry focused on tariffs. (The relevant commons press release also previews the question she will put to the “prime minister from members of the UK youth parliament”).
In the chamber today for Treasury questions, Hillier described the imposition of tariffs as “an event that is as significant as the financial crisis of 2008, or indeed, perhaps as Covid”.
She added: “In those instances, the state unleashed everything it could to try and resolve those issues”
Hillier went on to ask the chancellor, on duty at the despatch box, if she is “considering changing any of her rules in order to make sure that everything the state can throw at this problem is being done”.
It is a reasonably significant intervention. Hillier, as chair of the liaison and Treasury committees, is the definition of a “senior” MP. Before taking up her current posts, Hillier led the public accounts committee from 2015-2024. A minister during Gordon Brown’s tenure as PM, she also served in the shadow cabinet for a period under Ed Miliband.
But Reeves rejected Hillier’s bid to redraw the government line. Deploying familiar rhetoric, she commented: “I think it is incredibly important to retain cool heads at this moment.
“Tariffs have been imposed, and we are working closely with our friends and counterparts in the United States to reduce the impact of those.”
The chancellor added: “The fiscal rules are very important for giving the country the stability it needs. We saw when a previous government lost control of the public finances — it resulted in interest rates going through the roof, meaning higher costs for businesses and for working families.”
If in doubt: evoke Liz Truss.
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It was also significant, I thought, that Reeves appeared to reject the Liberal Democrats’ call for the government to advocate a “Buy British” campaign in response to Trump’s tariffs.
Questioned by Lib Dem deputy leader Daisy Cooper, Reeves was urged to begin such an initiative “as part of a broader national effort to encourage people to buy British here at home and elsewhere”.
The chancellor responded: “In terms of buying British, I think everyone will make their own decisions.
“What we don’t want to see is a trade war with Britain becoming inward-looking, because if every country in the world decided that they only wanted to buy things produced in their country, that’s not a good way forward.
“Our country has benefited hugely from access to global markets and we will continue to want to be able to do that because that is in our national interest for working people and for businesses in this country.”
The Lib Dems and Cooper have since hit back.
Responding via press release, the Lib Dem deputy leader commented: “The chancellor’s comments are an insult to businesses being pushed to the brink by Donald Trump’s trade war. This is completely out of touch with the British people who are rallying behind local businesses in their time of need.
“Instead of talking down our high-streets, the government needs to send a clear message to the White House that they stand squarely behind British businesses and against Trump’s damaging tariffs.
“We Liberal Democrats have been clear that we want to see the government going further and faster on working with our European and Commonwealth allies at the same time as launching this Buy British campaign as part of a national effort to boost British businesses at home and abroad.
“Buying British is a powerful way that people can get behind local businesses and show that as a country we won’t give in to Donald Trump’s bullying.”
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Lunchtime briefing
‘No state should be beyond criticism’: Labour MPs defiant after being denied entry to Israel
Lunchtime soundbite
‘We’ve got your back.’
— Chancellor Rachel Reeves delivers a statement to MPs before the start of commons business, updating the House on the government response to US tariffs.
The response to “global change” must be to “act decisively” and “take the right decisions that are in our national interest, protecting working people”, Reeves says.
Now try this…
‘Labour MP mood hardens on Israel’
Via PoliticsHome.
‘Tories lose one of their biggest donors in major blow to Kemi Badenoch’
The Guardian reports.
‘Should the Tories distance themselves further from Trump?’
ConservativeHome’s Tali Fraser writes.
On this day in 2024:
Gordon Brown accuses Sunak of undermining the ‘whole system of international law’
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Source: Politics